Report: NBA Expert Reveals Lakers’ Major Fear

LeBron James is currently averaging a career-low 34.7 minutes, almost two minutes per game less than he averaged for the Cleveland Cavaliers last season. That has to do with Lakers’ strategy not to have to rely on the four-time MVP, who is in just his first year in southern California.

But the Lakers’ lack of established stars around LeBron means they have needed him to consistently come up big.

And though his minutes are low, ESPN journalist and former Phoenix Suns chief Elhassan fears that the Lakers are relying on LeBron too much to play-make and make shots to win games for Luke Walton’s team.

The Lakers’ president of basketball operations Magic Johnson addressed this, saying:

“We are trying to make sure that we watch his minutes but also that we don’t run everything through him.

“We’ve got a lot of ball handlers so we feel we won’t overuse him in terms of his ball-handling and also every play has to run through him.

“I think we’ve got proven scorers, [like] Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram and then when you have two point guards like [Lonzo] Ball and [Rajon] Rondo, we don’t have to have LeBron having the ball in his hands all the time.”

According to Elhassan, that is something that must be managed to ensure that LeBron is burnt out when the post-season comes around in April and when the Lakers will need the 34-year-old to be at peak form to stand any chance of a lengthy playoffs run.

Discussing whether the Lakers’ easy schedule was the reason for their improved run of late, Elhassan said:

“They’ve got to take another step in their evolution. We’ve talked about why November [they went] 11-4. LeBron has been more assertive and said, ‘Alright, enough of this, give me the ball, put it in my hands.’ Again, it’s hard to argue that there’s a better way of winning a basketball game than putting the ball in his hands.

“I question the work-load, whether that’s going to come back and bite them at some point as far as the work-load on him. I know he’s averaging the fewest minutes of his career but it’s high-impact minutes, heavy minutes. But they come with the results, they come with the wins.

“Sometimes when you’ve got a young team that hasn’t won before this year, this gives them the confidence going forward. The ball is in his hands a lot. It’s good for winning in the short term but the idea is not to ask of him that much.”

What do you think of James’ performance so far?

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